Chinese Mobile Phone Batteries Explode

Mobile phone batteries that exploded in flames during tests by officials in southern China were counterfeit, spokeswomen for Nokia and Motorola said Saturday.

The Guangdong Industrial and Commercial Administration's Web site said four batteries exploded while being recharged during quality tests, which flunked 40 percent of mobile phone batteries and 80 percent of chargers.

The tests also found that of 40 locally purchased batteries, 15 had a smaller capacity that labeled, sometimes by as much as half.

Motorola spokeswoman Mary Lamb told The Associated Press that Motorola immediately sent a team to Guangdong province and found that the tests were legitimate, but that the three batteries labeled Motorola were counterfeit.

"We went with members of the lab and actually looked at batteries, and determined they were not authentic," she said.

Nokia spokeswoman Han Ying said the battery labeled Nokia that exploded was counterfeit.

The batteries are the latest in a parade of unsafe goods from China, including poison pet food, fake blood protein and dangerous toys.

Chinese imports accounted for more than 60 percent of the recalls announced by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission this year, and all of the 24 toy recalls.

China recently announced that nearly 20 percent of consumer goods it tested in the domestic market failed quality trials.

The mobile phone tests by Guangdong officials came as Chinese authorities investigate the death of a welder, who police say died when a Motorola phone exploded in his chest pocket.

A Motorola spokesman said that the company was helping with the investigation in Gansu province, and that it was "highly unlikely" that one of the company's products was to blame.

[tbweb]

China is torturing us with these garbage and risky exports and the only question is when will market forces take over and make China explode? Japan went through this phase too exporting junk until Japan adopted Deming's Principles and blew the world away with superior quality. Maybe China needs to explore and adopt much needed quality control methods into its industry, its long overdue and sooner or later China will pay the price of rejection if it doesn't!

[bookwerm314]

Keep the bad stuff in China, don't import it!
I support 100% inspection of all imported products PAID for by the folks doing the importing! Do it in the country via Bonded inspection companies with HUGE fines and Jail time for falsification of data, or do it at the port.
There is NO reason that the US Taxpayers should be paying for inspections, SUBSIDIZING the offshoring of so much industry!

[dukeudevil]

Brianbwb, I don't think you grasp the scope of this problem. More than likely, both Motorola and Nokia are operating in good faith. They do not make their own batteries, but have them supplied by a battery manufacturer.

The manufacturer theoretically produces them to Motorola or Nokia specs and thus the batteries carry the buyers'/OEM's labels. However, the Chinese manufacturer is skimping on the specs, not delivering what was promised, and cheating the firms. That also means faulty batteries are produced and unknowingly passed along to the end consumer.

So yes, it is very possible the batteries were OEM, but at the same time Nokia and Motorola are very likely victims themselves of a scam.

[brianbwb-2009]

"Nokia spokeswoman Han Ying said the battery labeled Nokia that exploded was counterfeit."

Does this mean that if I buy a new Nokia, and it explodes, that Nokia put a counterfeit battery into their own phone?

Didn't they test new phones, out of the box, that has a company supplied battery in it?

One of the two, either the testing, or the disclaimer, has problems, probably both...